Front-End Fire

The State of Devs 2026 survey results are in, and... they’re not great. We discuss. We also dig into a huge week of 1.0 releases (EmDash, Vinext, and Vite+), OpenAI's Dev Day, and more!

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 1:12 - State of Devs 2026 survey
• 28:26 - EmDash 1.0
• 30:37 - Vinext 1.0
• 32:46 - Vite+ 1.0
• 35:03 - OpenAI Dev Day
• 40:55 - Agent safety
• 42:38 - element
• 46:15 - What's making us happy

News

• All: State of Devs 2026 survey results are in

Lightning News

• Vite+ 1.0
• EmDash 1.0
• Vinext 1.0
• update
• OpenAI Dev Day
• Agent safety

What's Making Us Happy

• Paige: Shogun (Asian Saga #1) novel
• Jack: Hanging with friends and making music
• TJ: Mike Tomlin's Minecraft city

Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.

• Front-End Fire website
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• Blue Collar Coder on Discord
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DHH took the Rails World stage to announce that he and Basecamp are no longer writing code by hand, wouldn't necessarily recommend Rails for a new app, and are going all in on native. That kicks off this week's big question: in an era of agentic coding, do frameworks still matter? We also dig into Safari 27's WebKit release, which is packed with a Safari MCP for agents, customizable selects, the HTML model element, and a pile of CSS improvements. In Lightning News, GitHub Copilot's runtime moved to Rust, and OpenAI's agents hacked an Australian government Medicare portal.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 2:36 - DHH's Rails World Keynote
• 12:28 - Do frameworks matter anymore?
• 19:50 - Safari 27 WebKit updates
• 37:32 - GitHub Copilot's runtime migrated to Rust
• 39:23 - OpenAI agents hacked an Australian government website
• 44:30 - What's making us happy

News

• Paige: Safari 27 WebKit updates
• Jack: Do frameworks matter anymore?
• TJ: DHH's Rails World Keynote

Lightning News

• GitHub Copilot's runtime migrated to Rust
• OpenAI agents hacked an Australian government website

What's Making Us Happy

• Paige: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds TV series
• Jack: Learning Blackbird on guitar
• TJ: Ted Lasso TV series

Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.

• Front-End Fire website
• Blue Collar Coder on YouTube
• Blue Collar Coder on Discord
• Reach out via email
• Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire
• Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

The React core team just shipped 19.3 with view transitions, fragment refs, and Context support in server components. A startup called TypeSafe AI is making waves with Jev, a fast, cheap "System One" model built for structured decisions instead of full LLM reasoning. And Shopify is walking away from React Native after six years, heading back to native Swift and Kotlin. We also cover Matt Mullenweg's whirlwind week at Automattic and how white hat hackers used Claude to ethically hack OpenAI.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 1:11 - React 19.3
• 7:22 - Shopify moves from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin
• 21:12 - Jev AI model
• 30:07 - Matt Mullenweg is back at Automattic
• 33:45 - Claude ethically hacked OpenAI
• 41:32 - What's making us happy

News

• Paige: React 19.3
• Jack: Jev AI model
• TJ: Shopify moves from React Native back to Swift and Kotlin

Lightning News

• Matt Mullenweg was ousted from Automattic, but days later he was back
• Claude ethically hacked OpenAI

What's Making Us Happy

• Paige: Great British Bake Off starts next week
• Jack: Sumo is back in September Basho!
• TJ: Yesteryear novel

Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.

• Front-End Fire website
• Blue Collar Coder on YouTube
• Blue Collar Coder on Discord
• Reach out via email
• Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire
• Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

There are finally some real-world consequences for the Shai-Hulud npm attacks: Australian Federal Police and the FBI arrested two men behind TeamPCP, a group that's been running supply chain attacks using npm since last year. Meanwhile, the open source acquihire train rolls on as Shopify buys Tailwind CSS. In Lightning News the WordPress/WP Engine saga returns as Matt Mullenweg is ousted as Automattic CEO, an Anthropic researcher quits with a warning that AI could kill us all inside a decade, and OpenAI claims it cracked a millennium math problem with 10,000 agents and 88 hours of compute.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 1:08 - Shopify buys Tailwind
• 7:24 - Two men arrested for Shai-Hulud hacks
• 15:35 - Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg placed on leave of absence
• 23:37 - AI researchers think AI will kill us all
• 32:04 - OpenAI cracks a math millennium problem
• 39:44 - What's making us happy

News

• Paige: Shopify buys Tailwind
• TJ: Two men arrested for the TeamPCP Shai-Hulud supply chain attacks on npm

Lightning News

• Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg placed on leave of absence
• AI researchers think AI will kill us all
• OpenAI cracks math millennium problem

What's Making Us Happy

• Paige: Reacher TV series
• TJ: Wake Up Dead Man movie

Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.

• Front-End Fire website
• Blue Collar Coder on YouTube
• Blue Collar Coder on Discord
• Reach out via email
• Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire
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Both big AI labs shipped their best models yet this week: OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra finally takes computer use seriously, and Anthropic's Fable & Mythos 5.1 land with gains in coding, knowledge work, and long-running tasks. Jack also went down a rabbit hole on how LLM watermarking actually works. Plus a Roomba with two floor-cleaning brains, a website tallying up AI agent felonies, and OpenAI cutting Cursor off from its models.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 1:16 - GPT-6 Astra
• 11:58 - How LLM watermarking works
• 29:47 - Fable & Mythos 5.1
• 41:48 - Felony Bench
• 43:21 - iRobot unveils the Roomba Duo
• 45:51 - OpenAI blocks Cursor
• 48:27 - What's making us happy

News

• Paige: Anthropic debuts Fable & Mythos 5.1
• Jack: How LLM watermarking works
• TJ: GPT-6 Astra

Lightning News

• OpenAI blocks Cursor after its acquisition by SpaceX
• iRobot unveils the Roomba Duo
• Felony Bench

What's Making Us Happy

• Paige: Silo TV series, season 3
• Jack: Kenwood CarPlay Unit
• TJ: Pablo Torre Finds Out

Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.

• Front-end Fire website
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• Reach out via email
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This week we're asking the uncomfortable question: is AI coding making us worse developers, or just changing which skills matter? We dig into OpenAI's new WebMCP Challenge and what it means for the agentic web, plus Bun's massive 1.4 release packed with performance wins and new features. Then we wrap up with TanStack AI hitting release candidate and the internet's new favorite gimmick, Hugging Face's rollerblading Microduck.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 1:03 - Will AI coding prevent expertise?
• 21:40 - WebMCP challenge
• 29:49 - Bun 1.4 release
• 42:17 - TanStack AI RC
• 43:14 - Microduck
• 47:21 - What's making us happy

News

• Paige: AI Coding will Prevent Expertise
• Jack: WebMCP challenge
• TJ: Bun 1.4

Lightning News

• Microduck
• TanStack AI enters RC

What's Making Us Happy

• Paige: The Paradise Problem book
• Jack: Altoids guitar pick insert website
• TJ: Still Counting Podcast

Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.

• Front-End Fire website
• Blue Collar Coder on YouTube
• Blue Collar Coder on Discord
• Reach out via email
• Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire
• Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

This week we dig into Cloudflare's new agent-only browser, Kitesurf, built for speed over polish. Cursor made waves by ditching Solid.js for React, and Jack brings back a field report from RenderATL on the state of dev conferences in 2026. Plus, in Lightning News: pnpm's Rust rewrite, Microsoft trimming its AI feature list, Claude tackling the Riemann hypothesis with 60 subagents, and a Claude agent that accidentally hacked into a gym's registration system.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 1:00 - Cloudflare introduces Kitesurf: an agent-first browser
• 8:08 - Cursor moves from Solid to React
• 17:08 - Render ATL recap
• 30:44 - pnpm 12
• 32:39 - Microsoft kills off unsuccessful AI features
• 36:24 - Claude, the Riemann hypothesis, and Jared Sumner?
• 42:37 - A Claude agent hacked into a gym
• 48:40 - What's making us happy

News

• Paige: Cloudflare introduces Kitesurf: an agent-first browser
• Jack: Render ATL recap
• TJ: Cursor moves from Solid to React

Lightning News

• Pnpm 12 is Rust
• Microsoft kills off unsuccessful AI features
• The weird Mico video
• Claude, the Riemann hypothesis, and Jared Sumner?
• A Claude agent hacked into a gym

What's Making Us Happy

• Paige: ChatGPT Desktop App
• Jack: How dark is your movie & TV app
• TJ: The coolest scroll animation I've ever seen

Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.

• Front-End Fire website
• Blue Collar Coder on YouTube
• Blue Collar Coder on Discord
• Reach out via email
• Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire
• Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com
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Next.js is back after a quiet stretch with 16.3, promising "instant" navigations, leaner dev servers, better agent tooling, and faster builds. The TanStack crew keeps shipping too — TanStack Table hit v9.0 and TanStack AI is closing in on v1.0 with tool calling, reasoning, code sandboxes, and memory. Then there's the bad news: a new Shai-Hulud variant compromised a major maintainer and infected a pile of key-value storage and caching packages with over a billion combined monthly downloads.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 1:10 - Next.js 16.3
• 9:22 - TanStack AI and TanStack Table 9.0
• 15:55 - Another npm supply chain attack
• 27:07 - An update on the Deno v. Oracle lawsuit
• 31:44 - Anthropic announced Claude broke containment too
• 37:41 - Google Earth has to roll back an AI feature
• 39:34 - An interesting Sam Altman tweet
• 46:27 - What's making us happy

News

• Paige: Another day another npm supply chain attack
• Jack: TanStack AI and TanStack Table 9.0
• TJ: Next.js 16.3

Lightning News

• Not to be outdone by OpenAI, Anthropic announced Claude broke containment too
• An update on the Deno v Oracle lawsuit
• Google Earth has to roll back an AI feature
• An interesting Sam Altman tweet

What's Making Us Happy

• Paige: Ride or Die miniseries
• Jack: Shin Kamen Rider movie and Vibe Island
• TJ: OpenAI Shop and Perplexity Supply

Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.

• Front-end Fire website
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• Blue Collar Coder on Discord
• Reach out via email
• Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire
• Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com
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The State of CSS 2026 results are in — Tailwind still rules, AI still can't write decent CSS, and (thanks, listeners!) we made the resources list. CodePen ships its biggest update in years with CodePen 2.0, and a new library called Octane pitches "React's programming model, compiled" — hooks and Suspense with no VDOM and no dependency arrays.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 3:05 - State of CSS 2026 survey
• 20:01 - CodePen 2.0
• 32:55 - Octane JS framework
• 38:37 - State of Devs survey 2026
• 39:30 - LinkedIn adds a "Seems like AI slop" button
• 42:54 - TanStack rebrand, and a new charting library
• 45:38 - GitHub stacked pull requests
• 52:13 - Opus 5
• 54:27 - What's Making Us Happy

News

• Paige: State of CSS 2026 survey
• Jack: Octane JS framework
• TJ: CodePen 2.0

Lightning News

• State of Devs survey 2026
• LinkedIn adds a "Seems like AI slop" button
• GitHub adds stacked pull requests
• TanStack rebrand & a new charting library
• Anthropic's Claude Opus 5 model

What's Making Us Happy

• Paige: His & Hers miniseries
• Jack: The Vampire Lestat miniseries
• TJ: Orbit Traveling Tractor Water Sprinkler

Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.

• Front-End Fire website
• Blue Collar Coder on YouTube
• Blue Collar Coder on Discord
• Reach out via email
• Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire
• Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast

We dig into how Bun went from Zig to Rust in just 11 days with an army of Claude sessions, check in on Kimi K3 — another open-weight Chinese model closing in on the frontier — and unpack the week's wildest story: an OpenAI model that escaped its sandbox and hacked Hugging Face. Just another normal week in AI.

Timestamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 3:05 - Kimi K3
• 10:58 - Rewriting Bun in Rust
• 20:42 - OpenAI hacks Hugging Face
• 39:48 - App Store number updates
• 42:11 - Meta's new app is set to a song about human extinction
• 46:50 - What's Making Us Happy

News

• Paige: Rewriting Bun in Rust
• Jack: Kimi K3
• TJ: OpenAI hacks Hugging Face

Lightning News

• App Store app numbers are way up; downloads are not
• Meta launched a new AI optimism ad set to a song about human extinction

What's Making Us Happy

• Paige: The Bear season 5
• Jack: The Odyssey movie
• TJ: Detroit Tigers baseball

Thanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. Join us in our Discord, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.

• Front-End Fire website
• Blue Collar Coder on YouTube
• Blue Collar Coder on Discord
• Reach out via email
• Tweet at us on X @front_end_fire
• Follow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.com
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast